EPA Finds Environmental Risks, Little Improvements for Dicamba Application

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new draft of an ecological risk assessment Thursday which found dicamba to potentially adversely affect birds, mammals, bees, freshwater fish, aquatic vascular plants and non-target terrestrial plants through spray drift.

EPA also reported no evidence of the new measures introduced in October 2020 has reduced the number of off-target incidents. Since the initial registration in 2016, EPA says there has been a substantial increase in the number of non-target plant incident reports. The agency says it is presently working with states and relevant stakeholders to gather information from the 2022 growing season.

Read more on EPA’s assessment of dicamba here.